How to connect WhatsApp and send your first template

This walks through the real screens in WACRM Workspace (app.wacrm.ai) for connecting a WhatsApp number, drafting a template, and sending it to one contact — plus exactly where today’s build stops and a step still happens outside Workspace. Nothing below is a planned feature described as if it already worked.

What you need before you start

• A WACRM Workspace account with at least one project.
• A phone number for WhatsApp Business that isn’t already connected to WACRM, another WhatsApp Business Platform tool, or another WACRM project — Meta and WACRM both treat a number as belonging to one business account at a time.
• A Meta Business Portfolio (Business Manager) for that number. Embedded Signup can create one for you as part of the flow if you don’t already have one — see the Embedded Signup guide for what Meta checks along the way.
• A second phone (yours, a colleague’s, or a test contact’s) to send the first WhatsApp message from, so your new number has someone to reply to.

Connect your WhatsApp number

1. In Workspace, open Conversations → Channels in the sidebar.
2. Click Connect WhatsApp number. This loads Meta’s own Embedded Signup popup — you sign in with your Facebook account, pick or create a Business Portfolio, and verify the number, all inside Meta’s own dialog.
3. Once the popup finishes, your number appears in the list with a status badge. Click Activate on that row to subscribe your number to WACRM’s webhook and start receiving messages.

Reply to your first message

A conversation and contact are created automatically the first time your new number receives a WhatsApp message — there’s nothing to set up for this. Ask your test contact to send your new number a message, then open Conversations → Inbox. The conversation appears with a Window open chip and the contact’s phone number; type a reply in the compose box and send it like a normal text message. A business-initiated plain-text reply only works while this 24-hour window stays open — once it closes, the compose box disables itself and tells you to send a template instead.

Draft a message template

1. Open Messaging → Message Templates.
2. Click New template and fill in Name, Language, and Message body.
3. Click Create template. WACRM checks the text for self-promotion and other brand-safety issues before saving it — if it’s rejected, the flagged phrase is shown inline next to the field that triggered it.

A template created here is saved with status Draft. That’s as far as this screen goes today: it doesn’t submit the template to Meta for review. Getting a template reviewed and approved still happens the way it always has on the WhatsApp Business Platform — see Getting templates approved for how that review works and how to write one that passes on the first try.

What can you actually send today?

You want to…	Where in Workspace	Works today?
Reply with plain text inside an open 24-hour window	Inbox	Yes
Save a new template as a draft	Message Templates → New template	Yes — saved as Draft, not sent to Meta
Get a template reviewed and approved by Meta, from Workspace	—	Not yet — review still happens outside Workspace
Send an already-approved template to one contact	Broadcasts	Yes, as a one-contact campaign — see below
Record a contact’s WhatsApp marketing opt-in	Inbox → WhatsApp marketing consent card	Yes — for a contact who already has a conversation

Send an approved template to one opted-in contact

Before you start, the template you want to send needs status Approved — a draft you just created in Workspace won’t show up as a choice — and the contact needs a recorded WhatsApp opt-in: open their conversation in Conversations → Inbox and click Record opt-in on the WhatsApp marketing consent card, optionally with a short note under Source / proof on where the consent came from. With both of those in place:

1. Open Messaging → Broadcasts.
2. Under New audience segment, give it a name and, in Search filter (optional), enter the one thing that uniquely matches your contact — their exact phone number works well for a single-recipient segment. Click Create segment.
3. Under New broadcast, pick that segment and your approved template — the template picker only lists templates with status Approved. Pacing and budget cap are both optional for a one-recipient send. Click Create draft.
4. Click Start on the new row in Campaigns.

If the contact’s opt-in isn’t on file, the campaign still runs but that recipient shows up Skipped, with a caption reading No opt-in consent, and nothing is sent to them.

See the reply in your inbox

Once your contact replies to the template, their message opens (or reopens) a 24-hour window and appears in Conversations → Inbox like any other conversation — the same screen you used to reply to your first message. From there you can keep replying with plain text for as long as that window stays open.

Ready to try this with your own number? Request early access to get a Workspace, or have WACRM’s team set up the connection and your first template for you with Quick Setup.